


Pulled Apart

by SandyFeral



Category: Darkwing Duck (Cartoon 1991)
Genre: Crying, Electrocution, Family Seperation, ME - Freeform, fankid, im the one venting, venting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:02:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22459189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SandyFeral/pseuds/SandyFeral
Summary: A new police chief results in much more competent law enforcement in St. Canard. This ends up being really bad news for Liquidator who ends up getting separated from his family.
Relationships: Reginald Bushroot/Liquidator
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	1. Incarceration

**Author's Note:**

> This story is mostly just a vent on my part to dump out a bunch of negative emotions.  
> It also contains my fankid Anahita, whose intro fic can be read here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21979657

Liquidator knew the cops would be there.

Robbing a place as public and crowded as a mall always attracted their attention. Bud had expected them to arrive  _ eventually _ .

Just not this quick.

After scaring off or sweeping away the nearby people the mall had been quiet for a bit. It was easy for Bud to pick out the sound of sirens approaching. He rounded up the last of his new goodies, not in a rush. After all, it wasn’t the police he was worried about. 

The sound of feet caught his attention and he looked up. Then without a second glance, he shot a torrent of water at the incoming police officers, expecting to wipe them out in one swift action.

“Customers agree, Liquidator brand crime will sweep you off your feet!” 

To his surprise, some of the approaching officers managed to dodge his attack. Now two of them were approaching him.

Bud tried again, and managed to take another one out this time. Now one remained.

A lioness ran up to him and jabbed something in the mutant’s direction.

Bud instinctively pulled back, and it was a good thing he did too because as the object in the lioness’s hand passed by, he saw electricity crackling around it. Realizing they were trying to exploit one of his weaknesses, he decided that retreating might be the best course of action.

He grinned and darted towards the exit, only to find that they were blocked. With cops, all holding some kind of electrical device.

He stopped in his tracks. This… this actually didn’t look goo-

And while he was distracted, something struck his back.

Electricity coursed through him, sending a feeling, pain, intense pain through cells that hadn’t felt anything this intense in a while. Then it felt as if something was slipping away from him.

And then he fell to the ground.

...

This was something that  _ rarely  _ happened. At least not until recently.

Darkwing had rode up to the mall ready for a fight. Against Liquidator as well, one of the trickiest villains he had ever encountered… only to find that the police were already there. They had done their jobs

Which seemed like it would be a no-brainer, but living in St. Canard had gotten Darkwing accustomed to not relying on other forms of law enforcement. Especially when it came to supervillains.

He walked through the police cars until he reached the entrance of the mall. It looked like Liquidator’s body was being mopped up and squeezed into a container.

They had already handled this without him.

“Darkwing.”

The deep voice of a woman came from behind him, and caused him to jump. He turned around to find a tall, somewhat broad lioness towering over him. Her hands were behind her back. A little strip on her uniform said “Mackay” on it.

“I don’t remember telling anyone we needed more backup,” she said. Her voice was almost completely devoid of emotion. 

“Well I uh,” Darkwing puffed up his chest. “I wanted to  _ make sure _ you had this handled. You never know with criminals like these! Slippery devils.”

Wordlessly the woman, Mackay, walked past him to where Liquidator was being poured into a jar. She picked up the jar and held it out to him. “As you can see, we handled it. Completely incapacitated.”

She shook the jar a bit and Darkwing heard a displeased moan from inside. Once her point was proven she tucked it under her arm and carried it to the back of one of the police vans.

“And since we don’t require your services in the slightest, you can go home while we take the perpetrator to prison where he should’ve been already,” she finished.

Inside the jar Liquidator stirred. He had a terrible headache. He didn’t even know he could still get those. The door on the back of the police van shut just as he opened his eyes, muffling the sound of the conversation Darkwing and Mackay were having.

Faint words could be made out of the other side.

“... a daughter… greenhouse”

“...protocol...duty…”

Then, there was a loud noise from Darkwing, and suddenly his words were much clearer.

“They have a daughter! Poor kid is sensitive, you can’t just barge in there and take her from him!”

Liquidator’s ears perked up. Something rotten gnawed at his stomach.

“Look, I let the guy off because he doesn’t do much crime anymore, and he’s got a child! I know they’re criminals, but you can’t just tear a family apart like that!” Darkwing continued.

Liquidator didn’t hear the rest, but he didn’t need to. Suddenly he  **knew** where this woman was going next.

Even the people outside the van could hear his scream.

…

Liquidator woke up to the sound of a buzzer. 

He was in a mostly grey room. An image of himself registered in his brain and he realized one of the walls was a mirror.

“Good. You’re awake,” said a woman’s voice.

“What? I didn’t-” 

“You were screaming in the police van. Rattling your jar. We had to knock you out again.”

“Of course I was!” He growled. “My assumption is correct, isn't it? You’re going after  _ my family. _ ”

“Yes,” she said. It was so simple. As if it didn’t matter.

Liquidator slammed against one of the walls. “You  _ better _ leave them out of this!”

The wall suddenly let off a small burst of electricity and Liquidator yelped.

“Are you trying to intimidate me?” Mackay asked with a snort of laughter. “What an utterly pointless gesture.”

“If you think the Liquidator can be contained by this you’ve got another thing coming!” Liquidator yelled. “I would advise rethinking your plans. If I get out of here and find out you did anything to them-”

“You’re wasting your time. Our forces are already there. They should be apprehending them any moment now.”

Bud felt a clench in his chest. Panic. If he could do anything, if he could save them, he needed to act fast. “Why would you go after my family? They haven’t done anything!

There was a snort of disbelief. “Do you know how many criminal charges are on your husband’s record?”

“He’s changed! He’s been absolutely crime free for months! Shouldn’t that mean something?” 

“It would,” the Mackay said with a sigh. “We would have no reason to suspect him or the child of any further criminal activities. Except of course… the one active criminal living with them.” She tutted. “Harboring you from the law, providing you with resources,  _ and _ allowing you to raise a child? Grounds to have them both taken in.”

“What do you mean both? You can’t send a child to prison!”

“Oh of course not. She will simply be taken out of the custody of you and your husband. And may I remind you, your adoption was in no way legal, so you don’t even have a right to raise her anyway.”

“No one else would!” Liquidator said.

“I’m sure we can find someone. Anyone would be more capable than a criminal like you.”

“We’re her  _ parents _ . She wants to be with us! You’ll fuck her up if you take us away!”

“No. You’re not. She’s too young to know what she needs, and I cannot fuck her up any worse than you will by raising her.”

“You don’t know that!”

“Your behavior here says enough. I know everything I need.”

This was frustrating. What was this woman’s problem? If intimidation didn’t work and reason wasn’t working what could he do?

“Listen,” Liquidator said, his voice now a whine. “I just- Even if I can’t see her, don’t separate her from Bushroot, please. I’m begging you. You can’t do that to them. Maybe I’m not a good parent, but he is! And he-he’s all she has… they love each other so much ple-”

“Neither of you are fit to care for a child, and you’re in no position to make demands.” There was a pause. “It seems that the troops have returned. It’s too late now.”

With that last sentence there was a click and a short noise of static. Then silence. Liquidator looked around, panicked. He ran to one of the walls and pounded on it desperately, bracing himself against the shocks, yet made not a single dent.

One last shock and he flopped on the floor. He was panting, still conscious, though he wished he wasn’t. He slid onto his stomach.

He couldn’t do anything for them. 

Or maybe. He’d already done enough.


	2. Invasive

It must’ve been an hour before there was that buzzer sound again.

Liquidator lay on his side, staring at himself in the reflective service on the wall. It didn’t take him long to realize it must be a two-way mirror. Now he knew where she was watching him. 

He hoped she felt like he was watching back.

“I see-”

“Where are they?” Bud interrupted.

“Impatient aren’t you?” MacKay said.

Bud could hear the slight smirk in her voice. It was absolutely infuriating.

“Well, considering you’ve taken away my loved ones…”

“Yes well,” Mackay cleared her throat. “Unfortunately for you I’m not going to just tell you that information.”

“C-can I at least see them?”

“No.”

Bud scowled. “Gee, you’re real compassionate aren’t you?”

“I’m not here to be compassionate.”

Bud sighed. “I just want to see my husband and daughter. Is there something about that you can’t understand?”

“Why I should oblige you. Letting you see your husband is ill advised considering you are both powerful mutants who work well together, and Anahita is not your daughter. Legally or biologically.”

“She is to  _ us _ . We’re all she has left.”

“And who’s fault is that?”

That shut Bud up immediately. 

_ She knew.  _ He could tell it from her tone of voice.

“You know, the fact is,” she said. “She’ll be better off without you.”

“You-” Liquidator’s voice was choked. “You don’t know anything about it.”

That was a lie and he knew it. She knew  _ too _ much. He just needed to think she was wrong. He was  _ fixing  _ his mistake. He could make up for what he-

“You did enough damage when your product turned her into a mutant,” she said. “And instead of making up for it you do the selfish thing of trying to raise her yourself.”

“I wasn’t- I was helping her!”

“Do you think being raised by a criminal helps her?” Her voice lowered. “Do you think someone like you is in the slightest fit to be a parent? To raise a child? All you’ve ever done and all you could ever do is hurt her future. But your ego demands that you intervene, and you refuse to admit that you can’t do anything for her because you have to be in control.”

At this point Liquidator couldn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say. Tears were welling up in his eyes.

“That considered, I don’t think I owe you any information on the whereabouts, health, or safety of either her or Bushroot,” Mackay said coldly.

“Health? Safety? They-they could be hurt?”

“We’re not going to hurt a child.”

“And Bushroot?”

Silence.

Bud’s hand clenched into a fist. “He hasn’t broken any laws. YOU CAN’T-”

“We do what we need to apprehend and contain him. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Liquidator pressed himself against the glass. The tears spilled down his face.

“Jesus Christ,” Mackay said. “Crying?”

“Oh I’m sorry, is this not compliant enough?” Liquidator snapped through tears. “Next time I’ll make sure to have the appropriate response.”

“You can have whatever response you want, but you must know that actions have consequences,” Mackay said. “No one forced you to commit crimes. You could have stopped any time, as your husband clearly shows. This is all your own doing. And I’m not going to feel the least bit guilty about it.”

There was a pause as if waiting for Liquidator’s response. But he had nothing left to say. Then her voice came again.

“Good luck serving out your life sentences.”

There was a click and the sound of static.

Then silence.

This time Liquidator just slid to the floor and continued to cry.

…

It took Bushroot too long to notice. 

When Bushroot looked up and saw the figures approaching, they were already too close. He had been preoccupied, teaching Anahita about flowers.

Which seemed silly to him only moments later, when he had to pick her up and  _ run. _

When Bushroot scooped her up, the first cop was only a few feet from the greenhouse entrance. Anahita asked questions, but he told her, “later, later pumpkin.”

He had already made his way to the exit on the other side when he realized. Bushroot looked around. 

“Spike!” He called, trying to both yell and keep his voice down all at once.

The mutant dog peeked out of a bush, and came bounding towards them. Bushroot took that as enough, thinking he would be following close behind, and took off. 

There were yells behind him, people had spotted him. But he was too busy carrying Anahita to safety and saving his own backside to notice. In fact, all he could think about was running until-

A yelp rang out behind him.

“Spike?” Bushroot looked back to see his plant companion, tangled in some sort of net. 

On instinct the plants around the cops rose and reached for them. Unphased, the cops simply pulled out what looked like a large lighter, and burned away any flora that came close.

“Spike!” Anahita cried.

She wriggled within Bushroot’s grasp, trying to free herself and go save the tangled creature. After a few moments of hesitation, Bushroot turned. 

“I need to find somewhere safe for us. I-I’ll come back for him later,” Bushroot murmured to his daughter despite the lump of guilt in his throat. “He’ll be okay…”

Slipping into the trees, Bushroot finally relaxed a bit. The plants around him where now on the lookout for any cops nearby, allowing him to let his guard down a bit.

“Wait till I get my hands on them…” Anahita grumbled. She was growling a bit. “Taking poor Spike…”

Bushroot pet her absentmindedly while trying to think of where they could go now.

“Papa?” Anahita asked.

“Huh? Oh, what is it?”

“Why are we on the run from the cops? We haven’t done anything bad…” she narrowed her eyes at him. “You haven’t done something and lied about it right?”

“No, no! Uh, the thing is I’m… well I haven’t really done something recently. B-but my old record does make me a target with people like that. That and being a mutant.” He kissed her forehead. “Which is why if you ever see cops when I’m not around I want you to run the other way, okay pumpkin?”

“Ok…” She suddenly looked up at him. “Wait, what’s Pop gonna do when he gets home and finds coppers crawling all over?”

Bushroot sighed. “I don’t know. Your pop is slippery, I’m sure he’ll be able to avoid them!” His voice lowered for a moment. “I-I hope.” He tried your get rid of that idea. Stay positive right? Keep Anahita happy. “H-How about, in the meantime, we stay at your uncle Quacky’s and uncle Megs’? After our greenhouse that’ll probably be the first place pop will go anyway.”

Anahita nodded and with that, Bushroot headed off to find out where Quackerjack and Megavolt had hidden out.


	3. As good as he can get

Quackerjack had always liked kids. Why wouldn’t he? He had formerly made his living off of selling toys. However, he rarely got to  _ legally _ talk directly to children anymore. So of course, Quackerjack was always delighted to see Anahita. 

Maybe a bit  _ too _ delighted in Bushroot’s opinion. 

“Ana!” Quackerjack cried as he opened the door for the two of them. “Heya kiddo! Come over for a playdate with your ol’ Uncle Quacky?”

“Hey, Uncle Megs is still here too!” Megavolt called from the room over.

“Er, not exactly,” Bushroot said to Quackerjack. “The greenhouse is kind of overrun with cops. We were hoping we could stay here?”

“Oh of course!” Quackerjack beamed. “I couldn’t so no to my favorite little niece!”

“Thank you!” Anahita said, jumping up to hug Quackerjack around the neck.

Quacky gave Bushroot a grin over Ana’s shoulder. The plant strangely couldn’t if the expression was genuine or smug. As soon as Quackerjack put her down Megavolt poked his head out of a nearby doorway. He was  _ entirely  _ singed.

“Are you ok?” Ana asked the rodent.

“Oh, just a little thing I was working on getting huffy with me,” Megavolt said. He grumbled a bit about the device not co-operating while he wiped some soot off his face. “But you two had a close call with the cops too huh?”

“Yeah,” Bushroot said. “What happened with you?”

“The other day they doused me in water and almost dragged me away before dorkwing even arrived at the scene! If it weren’t for Quacky I wouldn’t have made it back.”

Bushroot felt a sinking feeling in his chest. Is that what happened to Liquidator? Maybe he should’ve been there. But then who would’ve taken care of Anahita?

Quackerjack’s voice snapped him back to reality.

“Hey Ana, while they have their boring grown up talk, do you wanna go see my toy room?”

“Hey now,” Bushroot said. “You’re not taking her near any of those toys without my supervision.”

“Aw c’mon papa, uncle Quacky’s toys aren’t that bad!” Ana chimed in. “All the sharp bits go through me cause I’m a liquid!”

“Yeah, don’t be a spoil-sport Bushy!” Quackerjack said.

“Well-uh, just don’t take her around any electrical stuff o-ok?” Bushroot relented. “And no explosives!”

“I won’t, I promise,” Quackerjack said, rolling his eyes before he led Ana into another room.

“Are you sure we’re the best option for having the kid around?” Megavolt asked once the other two were out of ear shot. “I mean I love Quacky but he is kinda nuts. And y’know how I am around water.”

Bushroot crosses his arms. “You say that like I have any other options.”

Megavolt opened his mouth as if he was about to argue, then shut it and thought for a second before he spoke. “Guess when you put it that way.”

Bushroot sighed. “I’ve been meaning to find some kind of babysitter, but hard to find ones that would work with me. I’ve mostly just been taking care of her myself when Liqui’s out and about.”

“Babysitter? Wait, you’re not  _ leaving _ us alone with her are you?”

“Well… I need to see what happened to Liqui. Might have to break him out of jail too. Neither me nor Anahita are great at being without him.” Bushroot grinned sheepishly. “Unless of course, you’d be willing to go instead? I mean I’d really appreciate it…”

“No way!” Megavolt said. “I saw the new chief of police when I almost got arrested, she’s more of a nutcase than I am! I’m trying to keep my head down until that lady learns how to calm down.”

“Ah. Well, worth a try I guess?” Bushroot chuckled nervously. “Sounds like a woman I don’t wanna mess with. I’m… going to be running straight into her aren’t I?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“Ok, ok,” Bushroot breathed deeply. “I can handle this. I mean, the worst that can happen is I end up in jail, right?”

“Geez has it really been that long since you've broken a few laws?”

“Yeah-” Bushroot paused a moment before finishing. “Well, probably not, but, I haven’t committed a proper crime or busted out of jail in what feels like forever.”

“Hasn’t it only been a few months?”

“It just. Feels like longer.” Bushroot glanced in the direction Ana and Quackerjack had gone. “I should tell her. She’s not good with being left alone.”

“Hey, I know I said we wouldn’t be great at babysitting but I think me and Quacky count for something!” Megavolt said indignantly.

“Oh, you know what I meant,” Bushroot said, exasperated. “She has parental abandonment issues.”

“Oohhh yeah. I forgot about that.”

“Can you just promise you’ll keep her out of trouble?”

“I’ll try.”

Bushroot was about to glare at him but he realized that considering who he had to work with, “I’ll try” was probably the best he could get.

And in this case that’d have to be enough.


End file.
